Adding to the list of supplements, just plain potassium is also important. This has nothing to do with blocking iodine, but will help block radioactive strontium and cesium. Licorice works against potassium absorption. I found some tree-stump-remover, made of potassium nitrate - that's also used for plant fertiliser and bomm-making. If I don't buy more potassium supplements, I suppose I might ingest some of that (?!?!?!) - (of course I'll check if it's poisonous). Also, when taking (potassium) iodide to protect the thyroid, it is also important to also be taking selenium. During times of higher radiation levels, it is not smart to take foods or drugs or caffeine which increase your metabolism - better to do things which DECREASE it, except for alcohol. If you plan on dying very soon, then OK, have a few drinks.
Oh - one thing that can be done - switched to iodized salt substitute, containing potassium. Himalayan salt also contains iodine and trace minerals. Regular iodized salt, if all else fails, containing no aluminum, pref.
PS - This is all information - I'm not saying we're going to get hit by significant radiation!!! HOWEVER, the burning stored fuel pools at Reactor 4, (which happens to be offline!), may potentially be releasing uranium and plutonium, which are the most severely toxic substances on Earth. So, there ya go.
Why on earth is that pool burning?! When the Reactor 4 wasn't even operating? Normally, at the bottom of such pools, the spent fuel comprises about 1/3 of the volume - and it is covered by 2/3 water. So why did that water decide to boil away, so that now the fuel is on fire? This is an intriguing question, and I'll give a long-winded answer soon, but first:
Those handling the overheating nuclear plants, like INSANE people, cuz they gots no other choice, keep repeating the same stragedies over and over: Immerse the core in water, watch hydrogen get stripped out of the overheated water, and build up in the containment building - then they vent the containment building to let out some hydrogen, to avert an explosion. Unfortunately, this allow oxygen to leak in, and so the hydrogen EXPLODES!
Well, they're treating a subatomic "fire" as if it were a thermodynamic fire - as if it were a forest fire, or house fire. They expect the water to block oxygen, and pull away heat as well. Yes, the second works somewhat - creating hydrogen in the process - and what is left after you strip the H from H2O - that's right, oxygen. Now, oxygen is irrelevant to the heating core. There is no need to try and block oxygen from the core. Oxygen becomes extremely dangerous, though, when there is now HYDROGEN in the building. Superheated hydrogen, doused with more oxygen, really, really wants to Explode - and that threatens the integrity of the core - meaning it can blow into the lower atmosphere, as it probably did w/ Reactor 2.
So, I'm sorry to question authority, but they are consistently making a muck of things, over and over again. What they are dealing with are OVEREXCITED, feedback-looping, chain-reacting, NEUTRONS, not wood. So, what they SHOULD be doing is somehow getting CADMIUM into the core to absorb, slow down, and minimise the protons interactions, until the core cools down. That may be physically near-impossible - unless a usable hole is made through the containment wall, at least. However, if ANY nuke plants are built in the future, they should be built to allow this solution!! There are presently thousands of cadmium rods which can be used.
Now I want to introduce a seemingly incoherent collection of images... The sun has acted up again. Finally. There was a flare back when the North African uprisings began. And another hit just when the Madison protests were ending. This was accompanied by a SUPERMOON, and a new moon (I believe) - meaning the moon was closer to the Earth than any time since 1992. This was enough to freak out the Earth's inner dynamics, and so tension built around Japan was released, creating the earthquakes. I believe the Christchurch quake was near the new moon.
(I should insert, conveniently, this: Now that tension has been released in 3 critical areas of the Pacific plate recently, there is now an increased chance that another Midwest U.S.A. quake will be coming. Look for that esp. near full/new moons and/or solar flares - also sudden barometric changes or rainfalls. This is also increased by the spring thaw).
We know why new/full moons - gravity/pressure/release - can help permit earthquakes, (and volcanic eruptions). But why would a solar flare influence them?!?! Surprisingly, part of this answer has to do with, "WHY DID THE SPENT FUEL POOL OF REACTOR 4 CATCH FIRE?"
I'll be needing to split this post in two, so I'll conclude it later. Part two will contain a tour of fractals, self-organisation, placement-in-time/space, (conditions for) phase-shifts, and arithmetic/geometric/exponential amplifications of excitability, including on LJ. Got to rest now and face the day.